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Zoloir t1_j3xk1ck wrote

Reply to comment by Surur in Solar energy record: Mongolian CSP generated round the clock – 12 days, 24 hours a day by Cosmic_Ray_Bit_Flip

if we assume that both water tanks lose heat at the same rate, so our only objective is to turn light into heat, then because solar panels are pretty far from 100% efficient at turning light into electricity, then it is more likely that absorbing all the light on the right surface into heat is probably closer to 100% than absorbing some of it into electricity, and then converting that electricity into heat

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Surur t1_j3xmhiy wrote

The idea is to use excess solar energy heat and store the transfer fluid to generate electricity at night.

Apparently, trough CSP is about 20-40% efficient, and solar cells are about 20% efficient, and turning electricity to heat is 100% efficient, so if the solar cells are 1/2 the price of the troughs, they would be cheaper than the troughs in generating heated fluid for storage.

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Galactus54 t1_j3zgl5h wrote

But since the troughs probably have a much longer usable life their lifetime efficiency surpasses PV.

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